


A Lesson in Survival (MtG Month of the Ship - Day 8: Teaching)

by Wolkemesser



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Eternals, F/F, Ravnica, war of the spark spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 07:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18566407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolkemesser/pseuds/Wolkemesser





	A Lesson in Survival (MtG Month of the Ship - Day 8: Teaching)

Kaya’s first thoughts on the new warrior were filled with concern and confusion; who is this woman who moves like lightning, and dresses in the same garb as Bolas’ eternals?

Her second thought, after watching the warrior smash through an entire line of the metallic blue zombies in the blink of an eye, was one of awe; who _is_ this woman??

Not that she had much time to ponder. The rooftop was still crawling with eternals, and each one of them moved with the speed and finesse of a living warrior. It was all Kaya could do to phase through their blows, taking out one or two at a time. At the very least she had been able to evacuate the building, ordering her attendant thrulls to carry away as many bystanders as possible.

Now it was just her, and this mystery woman sprinting up the side of the building. Kaya tore her eyes away to face a new threat.

Two spear-wielding eternals made thrusts at her head and chest, twirling their weapons in tricky arcs that would have been impossible to block normally, Kaya glowed purple and let the blows slide through her, dropping to one knee and sweeping the legs of one of the eternals out from under it. She managed to plant a blade in its head, but the other one dodged her kick, managed to land a hit on her side with the butt of its spear. Kaya fell on her back, winded, and looked up in horror as the eternal plunged down at her with its spear-

-Only to fly backward, weapon and all, as the warrior barreled into it shoulder-first, launching the eternal over the edge of the building.

“Up, quickly now, friend.” She offered a hand down to Kaya. “The worthy dead are not finished with us.”

Kaya let the other woman help her up. She felt a tingle travel up her arm as their fingers met, one that couldn’t possibly have just been because of the electricity sizzling off of her.

“Th-thanks.” She tossed her cape back over her shoulder, adjusting the sunburst pin that kept it in place. “I’m Kaya.”

“Samut.” The warrior grunted. “Can you fight?” She moved past Kaya, cutting down another spear-wielding zombie. “There’s more coming up the sides of the building.”

“Great.” Kaya turned to face down an eternal wielding a length of chain. She blocked one swing with her left knife, wrapped the chain around the blade, and pulled the eternal face-first into the butt of her right blade. Samut leapt over top of Kaya and landed feet first on a goat-headed eternal, driving its head into the roof. Without missing a beat she spun and kicked a second eternal into a pillar. Two more leapt out at her over the edge of the roof, and she fell back to where Kaya stood.

They pressed their backs together and circled the roof, eyeing the small squadron of eternals that surrounded them. Kaya could feel the crackle of electricity off of Samut’s back, and could smell something earthy and sweet wafting from her hair.

“You’re pretty fast.”

“You’re pretty, ah…pretty good with those knives. Nice dual-wield.”

“Two blades are better than one.” Kaya’s eyes flicked down toward Samut’s weapons. “Not that I need to tell _you_ that. Not to jump to conclusions, but do you know what the heck these things _are_? You look like you shop at the same armory they do.”

Samut grit her teeth. “These are my friends. My comrades that the false god-pharaoh has desecrated. I am here to put them to rest.” She decapitated the eternal in front of her for emphasis.

“Now _that_ I can get behind.” Kaya took a swipe at the eternal closest to her. She got her knife past its guard, but it dodged the blade itself with a swift side-step Kaya had never seen before. “I don’t suppose you could give me some pointers? Help me help you?”

She caught a flash of Samut’s smile out of the corner of her eye. “It would be my pleasure.”

Kaya felt Samut’s shoulder pivot right, and she circled around to accommodate. She heard Samut’s blade smash through the reinforced skeleton. “The worthy rush headlong into battle, never wavering in their zeal, so let them rush head-first into your death-blow!”

A human-looking eternal charged Kaya, khopesh drawn. Kaya waited until it committed to a killing swing before parrying and taking off its head.

“Point taken. What else have you got? Besides killer legs?”

Samut laughed. “Watch the spears. The worthy have keen eyes to look for weaknesses, and they’ll stick a blade through any that they find. Let it be your choice where their blades go”

“Interesting. Watch your back.” Kaya lunged away, toward a pair of spear-wielders, making a show of favoring her left leg, and leaving her flank exposed. Sure enough, the eternals feinted blows to her face, then twisted their weapons down into her side, which she had already made intangible. Three steps later she was walking past a pair of headless corpses.

A jackal-headed eternal lunged out from behind a pillar, slashing with a khopesh. Kaya hopped backward, parrying the first few blows and phasing through the rest to get behind the zombie and put it in a headlock.

Samut dashed over, tearing through an aven eternal as she ran. “Khenra are usually born as twins!” She shouted, her voice urgent. “They’re natural tag-team duelists.”

Kaya went intangible just in time to see a blue stinger pass through her chest, smashing the jackal into a dozen pieces. A blue-armored manticore stood behinds her, surprisingly quiet on its metallic paws.

Kaya rolled away from a second sting, uncurling at Samut’s feet. “I guess that one got all the good genes!”

Samut scowled at the manticore. “She would have been forced to kill her twin to win Bolas’ trials. He’s paired them up with beasts instead.” She lunged forward, knocking the manticore back with twin strikes to the face, both literally too fast for Kaya to track.

A blue skeletal snake lunged from the side, undulating side-to-side as it flew across the roof.

“The naga will try to distract you with their movement,” Samut shouted over the clash of her blades against a manticore’s tail. “Keep your eye on the head!”

Kaya steeled herself, and let a blade fly. The streak of purple flew right over the naga’s head as it ducked low-

-right into Kaya’s second strike, right between its eyeless sockets. 

“Hah! Excellent thrust!” Samut had one sword buried in the manticore’s jaw, the other holding back its claws. Its chrome-blue tail twitched and leapt forward, aimed right at the warrior’s head.

Kaya leapt and threw herself at the stinger, her full weight pulling the strike off-course. She turned intangible, and the stinger smashed into the stone roof. Samut severed the appendage with an upward stroke and ripped the creature’s head off with the back-blow.

They threw their backs together again and surveyed the roof. Not single eternal was still moving.

Samut let out a deep breath, and clapped Kaya on the shoulder, sending an electric thrill down her spine.

“I like your moves.”

Kaya grinned “You should see me out of this armor.” She stepped forward, phasing out of her Orzhov garb, which fell to the ground to reveal her leather jacket and trousers. Better not to carry the extra weight, if they were going to be at this all day.

Samut raised an eyebrow, but returned the grin. “Let’s see if you can keep up on your feet, first.” She pointed her khopesh at the plaza below, where a new mass of eternals was moving in, spears drawn on a badly outnumbered unit of Ledev guardians. “Meet you downstairs? I can show you a few more tricks, if you have the stamina.”

Kaya was soaked in sweat, and her every muscle ached, but there was something invigorating in Samut’s bright-toothed grin. In those savage eyes that felt like they could rip out your heart with a look.

She licked her lips and began to phase through the floor, straight down to where the action was.

“Race you there.”

 

_The above is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC._


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